This may seem extremely random, but sometimes that’s just how my mind works. We’ve discussed many themes this year through the abundance of novels that we have explored. Power. Poverty. Rationality. Irrationality. Love. Greed. Politics. Morality. The list is endless. However, a thought came to me as I was being sidetracked from doing my other homework assignments. So much of what we know- our emotions, our judgment, our perspectives- is based on the knowledge of opposites. Opposites may not be the best word that fits here; maybe it should be dialectics, but opposites seem more applicable to any situation in society.
As we read Heart of Darkness and enter into Conrad’s documentation of the “spiritual darkness” his characters face, we are left with many questions. However, on a broader level, what is darkness? When we think of darkness, it’s in the comparison of light. Darkness is an absence of light. So the modifiers we use to describe darkness are thought of as everything that light is not.
What is wealth without knowing what poverty is? When we have nothing to compare our riches to, what does it become? How important does love become without the awareness of what desolation or hatred leaves a person? We enjoy the passionate emotions from our dear ones. They console your grief. They celebrate your happiness. They become the person you lean on during struggles. We don’t become aware of how precious this is without contemplating a life without love. This leaves a life without joy to share, without laughter to be heard, and without as much meaning.
When you take a look around us, opposites are everywhere. They’re within more grand dialectical relationships. Furthermore, there are opposites, if you will, within similarities. There’s a McDonalds for every Burger King. There’s a Wal-Mart for every Target. There’s a Walgreens for every CVS. They are within story plots. There’s a hero for every villain. They are within relationships. There’s a man for every woman.
The importance of opposites is that it provides a deeper meaning for what we experience. Knowledge is based on what we have only experienced or have come in contact with. If we are ignorant of the opposing side, then we never fully understand our own position. It truly makes me wonder what a life without opposites would be like. Is it even possible? Even nature has surrendered to this. Day is to night as sun is to moon. Life, itself, would be completely different and restructured. If it were possible, it would seem like a life I would not enjoy living. I would imagine it like a single path that you couldn’t stray from. A world without opposites almost restricts multiple points of view and is just an overall lopsided world. I know almost no one thinks about absurd situations like this, but sometimes my mind wanders too far. I apologize. However, I am still grateful for this world filled with opposites.
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Darrell, this is such a cool insight! And I completely agree with it, because I've seen resonating instances too. How do we realize what success is without failure? How can we appreciate joy without having felt sadness? We can't fully experience things we take for granted all the time without understanding the opposite side. It's like an argument too: you shouldn't shut down the other side without hearing them out at least and then making a decision. We'd be ignorant without opposites, which is a great point you bring up. Nothing would be worth enjoying without seeing what else is out there. We'd be missing so much without opposites and you made a deep connection with this. And don't apologize for thinking of something that's so interesting!
ReplyDeleteDarrell, I love this post! It really got me thinking about the importance of opposites/dialects in our life. When reading the ideas you talked about in this post, it reminded me of the game catch phrase. In the game catch phrase, you have to define a given word or phrase without using words from the phrase itself. When playing this game, I have noticed that often times people use opposites to describe or define a word. For example, if the word was moonlight, someone might say "It's not sunlight, but...". This really got me thinking, how would we define things in our lives without the use of opposites to compare them to? If you were to try and define a word without using any opposites or dialects, it would usually be very difficult. I have never really thought about the importance of opposites before, but this insight is very interesting!
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